From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Venice Fights to Save Itself From Tourists   
   By Eric Sylvers, Sept. 22, 2023, WSJ   
   VENICE—For many residents of this lagoon city, the signs of daily life   
   slowly draining away are everywhere. The hardware store that recently became   
   yet another trattoria for tourists, the souvenir shop that replaced a fruit   
   stand, the last school    
   closed in an outlying neighborhood.   
      
   Venice has struggled with the impact of mass tourism for decades, but   
   residents say the city has reached a tipping point, accelerated by a boom in   
   European and U.S. tourism in recent years that was only briefly interrupted by   
   Covid.    
      
   This month, for the first time ever, Venice’s main islands have more tourist   
   beds, including hotels and short-term rentals such as Airbnb, than residents,   
   according to Ocio, a group that campaigns for affordable housing in the city.   
   The estimate made    
   national headlines in Italy, deepening fears that the city will soon be   
   populated only by tourists and a few resident holdouts.   
      
   By comparison, Florence has about the same number of tourist beds, but with a   
   population that is about seven times bigger.   
      
   Venice’s takeover by tourists used to be a problem in summer, and a few   
   other peak periods of the year. Now it is spread across the calendar. At the   
   same time, the resident population is in steady decline, dropping below 50,000   
   last year for the first    
   time in more than three centuries. That is down from 66,000 two decades ago   
   and 175,000 in the early 1950s.   
      
   “Look at this, it’s out of control,” said Venice native Lidia Fersuoch   
   as she swept her arm at the tourist masses packing a square near the Rialto   
   Bridge. “We’ve become Italy’s answer to Disneyland.”   
      
   Nearby, a group of Japanese tourists snapped photos against the backdrop of a   
   nondescript pharmacy. In the window, a digital display flashed the city’s   
   population with a note about how far it has dropped in recent decades. The   
   display is meant to raise    
   awareness about Venice’s precarious plight, but has become yet another   
   Instagram-ready tourist attraction.   
      
   Between the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark’s Square, the heart of Venice,   
   tourists shuffle past shops selling souvenirs, candy, Belgian waffles, French   
   crepes and pizza by the slice. Knockoff Murano glass figurines are a reminder   
   this is still Venice. A    
   shop selling bathroom accessories looks like one of the few businesses serving   
   locals, but largely caters to foreigners remodeling vacation homes in Venice.   
      
   “I fear there’s little hope of saving Venice, but that doesn’t mean I   
   won’t fight every day,” said Lorenzo Calvelli, a Venetian native and   
   history professor at the University of Venice.    
      
   The large number of apartments rented through Airbnb and other platforms has   
   pushed up rents beyond the reach of many locals. As the number of residents   
   has dwindled, so too has the number of shops and other services needed to   
   sustain daily life. Some    
   types of doctors can be hard to find, forcing residents to travel to the   
   mainland to get certain treatments.    
      
   Large cruise ships have been banned from getting too close to Venice’s   
   central islands, following years of complaints they were damaging the city’s   
   delicate foundations. But they still travel through the lagoon, sometimes with   
   more than 3,000    
   passengers, causing damage to the city and its natural setting, according to   
   local university researchers. Large private yachts that dock near St. Mark’s   
   Square also cause damage, they say. The city council disputes the damage.    
      
   Advocacy groups want Venice to clamp down on short-term rentals as New York   
   City has. They also want the city to offer incentives for apartment owners to   
   rent to residents, limit the construction of new hotels and stop approving the   
   conversion of    
   existing buildings to hotels.   
      
   The number of tourists arriving here this year is expected to beat the record   
   of 5.5 million in 2019, before the pandemic curtailed global travel.    
      
   Many European cities from Barcelona to Dubrovnik are grappling with the   
   strains of excess tourism. But Venice has become the symbol of the problem,   
   because of the clash between its worldwide appeal to visitors and the delicate   
   fabric of a centuries-old    
   city built on more than 100 islands.    
      
   Last week, Venice’s city council approved a €5 fee, about $5.33, for   
   day-trippers entering the city’s historic center on the busiest days of the   
   year, starting next spring. Residents, workers and students will be exempt   
   from the fee, which will be    
   paid online or through a mobile-phone app.   
      
   Initially there won’t be turnstiles to enter the city, but visitors will   
   have to be ready to show their ticket anywhere in the city if asked by   
   authorities. The penalty for offenders is likely to be about €100, said   
   Michele Zuin, Venice’s    
   councilman in charge of the budget. Startup costs mean the city will likely   
   lose money the first year of the program. After that, funds raised will be   
   used to lower local taxes and pay for the city’s upkeep, he said.   
      
   “If I don’t reserve the ferry for the Statue of Liberty I’m not going to   
   get there. This is no different,” said Zuin. “We already reserve flights,   
   hotels, dinners and many other things when we go on vacation.”    
      
   Many locals see the fee as proof that their city is becoming a theme park, a   
   capitulation to the idea that the city will soon be just for tourists. Urban   
   planners say it will do little to reduce the scale of tourism or curb its   
   impact.    
      
   “The fee is a Band-Aid that doesn’t address the root of what’s wrong   
   here,” said Sebastian Fagarazzi, 38, a Venetian who works as a tour guide   
   and is co-founder of Venezia Autentica, an organization that seeks to help   
   visitors tour the city in a    
   way that supports local life.   
      
   Of Fagarazzi’s 20 classmates in high school, 16 have left Venice, most   
   because life here became too costly and difficult. He was the third generation   
   of his family to run a shop near the Rialto Bridge that sold clothing made in   
   Venice and other parts    
   of Italy. The shop closed in 2015 when it could no longer compete with stores   
   selling cheaper foreign-made goods. Now a store in its place sells handbags   
   and suitcases.    
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)